During the 1990s, his rock band conquered the charts with a string of smash hits. Now, acclaimed rock musician Billy Corgan has a new target: social justice warriors and the “narcissists” of social media.
In a no-holds-barred interview with Alternative Nation, Corgan, the frontman for The Smashing Pumpkins, criticised social media for encouraging outrage culture, political tribalism, and slavishness to the state. He also criticised Facebook and other social media companies for being too close to “big government.”
Corgan even had words for Breitbart’s open comment section:
The social media construct is cuddly and fuzzy for a reason… True democracy is uncomfortable. This is not uncomfortable. Look no further than some post from the New York Times and read the comments. Go on Breitbart and read the comments. It’s all right there, it’s all you need.
Following the trend of an increasing number of celebrities and entertainment figures, Corgan also threw down the gauntlet to the “social justice warriors” of the internet, and their chilling effect on artistic expression.
If you have people like Jerry Seinfeld come out and saying, “It’s not worth playing at colleges anymore because social justice warriors will be all over you the moment you step out of line.” So you’re right about a comedian using Facebook or a musician using Facebook, but I guarantee you the minute they put something up that doesn’t align with the social justice mob mentality, the risk is too high. So you have a watering down of diversity and homogenizing of general messaging. That, as an artist, is death.
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